Simple set-up that causes a ridiculous amount of distortion: why?

[Capi]

Ok, so I hooked up my laptop to an Alesis 3630 Compressor in the simplest way possible just to get the feel of what compressing a snare sounded like at different thresholds, attacks, etc. It looked like this:

raw snare​

(output)------------->(input)​

COMPUTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . COMPRESSOR

(input) <------------ (output)​

compressed snare​

First I monitored what the snare sounded like unprocessed. The snare peaked at -4dB on both the laptop and the compressor.

All good. Then through headphones I monitored the processed sound coming directly out of the compressor -- also sounded good. I set up the output to also peak at -4dB. But then I hit record, and this happens:

Why does my laptop record a horrendously distorted snare that goes way above 0dB, when the compressor's output clearly shows a peak at -4dB? I've probably committed a terrible atrocity somewhere, but I can't see it... if someone could point me in the right direction that'd be great thanks.

 

[The Cancers]

Your output from your compressor or your input level on your soundcard is too high. You should be able to find a way to turn either or both down pretty easily.

 

[TeyshaBlue]

^^^^^this^^^^^^


That waveform looks to be horribly clipped due to level.

 

[Bristol Posse]

Is the compressor using a vu Meter
Is it showing you peak or RMS levels.
RMS Levels of -4 (presumably -4 dbfs) is very hot indeeed and the peaks are likely to be way above 0dbfs which will clip your converters and your laptop.
Infact even if the peaks are at -4dbfs you may still be clipping your converters.

 

[TheChikenMaster]

could be like they said before . Could also be the fact that you are switching different line levels around, that cuases problems. Why not keep it in the box, auditions compressor ain't that bad?

 

[Capi]

Yes you were right Cancers... I didn't realize my soundcard had a mic input level, and I've discovered I'm missing a SndVol32.exe file, which didn't help.

Nope it was showing me peak levels. I agree, with RMS it probably would have been way more screwed up.

Yeah true the software is better; I'd never normally use a set-up like that, but I've recently tried to start mixing drum tracks with my own samples and I just wanted to see what the best way to compress a snare was. Way easier fiddling with about 5 knobs (ahem) than with hundreds of controls that I don't understand...